Religion & Beliefs

You might not expect to see many *Men of God* at a heavy metal concert, but that doesn’t mean there are no monks rocking out — on stage, no less. Take Fratello Metallo, or the Metal Friar, a 62-year-old Capuchin monk who’s based in Milan and fronts a metal group that just came out with their second album. This isn’t just Christian rock with a bit more grit. The Metal Friar sings about sex, drugs, and alcohol in his lyrics, and though he mentions faith and religion in some of his songs, he maintains that he’s not trying to convert anyone to Catholicism. The Metal Friar, aka Brother Cesare Bonizzi, began his love affair with heavy metal at a Metallica concert fifteen years ago. 

He fell in love with metal energy, and has been making loud head-bashing music ever since, sharing stages with the like of Slayer, Iron Maiden, and (irony of ironies) Judas Priest. There’s something so amazingly perverse about raging metalheads flashing the devil sign at a friar. See for yourself: